Issue #907 April 14, 2015
Publisher: Joan Stewart
“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”
In This Issue
- Hurry…Google Deadline Looms
- Killer LinkedIn Tip
- Stuck for an Article Idea?
- Hound Video of the Week
This Week in the Hound House:
For three cold months, the birds ignored the homemade seed wreath I hung outside my kitchen window here in Wisconsin. Finally, they’re chipping away at it. In January, I gave one to my friend in town who reports that the birds ignored hers, too. But the chipmunks have devoured it. Oh well. At least somebody enjoyed it. Here’s the recipe.
1. Hurry…Google Deadline Looms
A week from today, Google starts penalizing websites that aren’t mobile-friendly.
If someone searches Google from a tablet or mobile phone, using keywords related to your business, your website won’t come up as high on the search results as it would today. Your website also won’t have the small “mobile friendly” tag on it that’s akin to a “Welcome” sign. Those searching might be prompted to click on your competitor’s mobile-friendly site because yours is too difficult to navigate.
When I asked Jason Saeler, my web developer who’s making my 2,000-page site mobile-friendly, if he’s swamped with work trying to meet the deadline, he said most of his clients don’t want to pay to have their sites converted.
I was stunned.
This year, no other factor can affect your marketing and publicity more than Google’s April 21 deadline. Journalists and bloggers use mobile devices to search for sources. Meeting planners use them to search for speakers. Readers use them to search for books. If your competitors’ sites are mobile-friendly but yours isn’t, you lose.
Read Cision’s 50 Astonishing Mobile Search Stats and Why You Should Care.
Contact your web developer today and make sure you’re ready.
2. LinkedIn Success Story
This is what happens when you publish content on your LinkedIn profile. It’s from Publicity Hound Bill Branson of Strategic Business Architects, Inc. who attended the LinkedIn webinar last week with Wayne Breitbarth and followed Wayne’s advice on how to publish:
“I found one of my popular reports. It took only a few minutes to paste, edit and publish it. So far (after a little over an hour), I have 139 views, 10 Likes, one comment and one retweet on Twitter. Nice! Thanks again for another helpful webinar that I was able to take immediate action on and see the results right away.”
In addition to step-by-step instructions on how to use 10 powerful tactics on LinkedIn, Wayne shared two valuable tools. One analyzes your headline and tells you how to improve it. The other pinpoints the formula for writing articles that make it into Pulse, LinkedIn’s popular magazine featuring articles by influential business people.
If you missed the webinar, you really didn’t because the video replay and all the bonuses are available all on one page. You can return at any time and review the material. In addition to four cheat sheets and checklists, it includes a handy index that you can use as a guide to find exactly what you’re looking for on the video replay.
Order the video replay at my shop.
3. How to Become a Paid Speaker
You don’t have to be famous to earn a fee when you speak to audiences.
But you need to know the five critical steps for landing a speaking engagement, what to give meeting planners, and what to do before and after the event so you’re invited back again.
I’ve built my business, including my email list and my consulting, on speaking. Early on, I spoke entirely for free to get experience and learn from my mistakes. Speaking for free turned to speaking for a fee. And that has led to publicity galore, most of which the meeting planners do for me.
The secret is knowing your target market, what they need, and making sure you can deliver value far beyond what you promise. Want to build your business from paid speaking?
Join Steve Harrison for a free telephone seminar this Thursday, April 16, at 2 and 7 p.m. Eastern Time. He will interview six successful speakers who explain how to enter this lucrative but highly competitive field. You’ll learn how to find companies and organizations that already have a budget to pay speakers like you quite handsomely–even if you’re not famous or well-known in your field.
You’ll learn how experienced speakers raise their fees and get it, and you’ll find out about proven ways to brand yourself and your message in a way that will promote a flood of requests for speaking engagements.
Full Disclosure: I’m one of Steve’s affiliates and may earn a commission if you buy anything from him down the road.
4. Hound Video of the Week
After being abandoned by her mother, a baby fawn, Pippin, was adopted by a Great Dane, Kate, and they have been best friends ever since. Watch the 1:04 YouTube clip, part of the Animal Odd Couples series on PBS. You can click through and watch the entire episode. Thanks to Publicity Hound Sophie Wajsman of Melbourne, Australia, for this pick-me-up.
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